When I've sung enough to ensure myself a supper, I get to spend time on the projects that I do more out of interest than for the money. One of these projects is the web site of the New Zealand Opera Society.
The printed form of the New Zealand Opera News is fairly well established, published monthly since 1977. The magazine targets New Zealand's opera enthusiasts. The standard of writing in the magazine is high. It recounts readers' impressions of trips to the opera houses abroad. It features letters from foreign-based New Zealand singers describing their successes overseas. It contains interviews with creative teams behind new productions. A diary, running about four or five months into the future, outlines opera productions and other operatic activities such as concerts of opera excerpts and singing contests. Sometimes the magazine risks slightly more controversial subjects, such as government arts funding. Subscribers pay around $30 NZ per year.
The committee and editorial team are intelligent, literate and articulate volunteers with plenty of experience in the print medium. They are enthusiastic about opera and travel widely to follow their passion. A couple of years ago the society commissioned a web site but for various reasons, mostly technical, the web site became unmaintainable. Sharon is a friend of mine who is both an editor and a member of the National Opera chorus. She offered herself to the society as "web editor" in an effort to revive the web site. She called me for technical assistance.
We met with the committee to discuss the site. Not unreasonably, the society feels that an attractive web site should attract new members. Online teasers and a "subscribe now" button ought to encourage subscriptions. The diary and events page should be the most up-to-date opera diary around given that the list of subscribers includes the majority of the New Zealand opera community. The reality is that few people visit the web site, members rarely volunteer events information, and nobody is clicking the "subscribe now" button. So what can the web can offer an organisation like the New Zealand Opera Society?
More and more I am of the opinion that organisations will benefit from seeing their web site as a conversation, not as an advertisement. It's no surprise I'm sure, but I suggested the Opera Society try blogging. Imagine a travelling opera lover, stunned by an ex-pat's performance as Gilda in a small theatre on the Black Sea coast in Varna, Bulgaria. She drops into an Internet café, logs on to www.opera.net.nz, and submits a review which is instantly available for all to read. Imagine an opera chorus baritone blogging behind-the-scenes gossip during rehearsals for an upcoming season; the audience swells with people who want to see the vain, corsetted Don Giovanni. Some editorial control may prove necessary, but you get the idea!
I may even volunteer as contributor myself. I can just see it now: struggling conductor, living in a London garret, singing for his supper... and that's where we came in.
re:
Opera blog - fabulous idea! I know that performers of all persuasions are hungry for feedback; have we entertained, enlightened, enraged, enraptured our listeners? What aspects of the production worked well, what could have been better, what would the audience like to hear again, what new material could be presented next? A well-considered review is like gold to a performer, but often published once in a daily or perhaps weekly newspaper, only to sink from view unless captured by a longer lived medium like a website. With an opera website blog as medium, both professional reviewers and enthusiastic concert/opera goers could carry on the conversations that invariably happen over supper and lunch the next day. I'm sure this could catch on! If such a blog already existed, I could for example write how much I enjoyed the quartet of singers calling themselves "Brio", in concert semi-staged excerpts of various Handel & Purcell operas. There was much to enjoy, especially the Trio from "Acis & Galatea, and Dido's lament - her final aria from "Dido & Aeneas" sung by Janey MacKenzie. Having since listened to contrasting recordings of this aria by Emma Kirkby & Anne Sophie von Otter, I can say that I preferred Janey on the day. There is nothing like being there - the live experience!